Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday that America's interests in the region were "in danger," his office said, after the U.S. killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Syria's Bashar al-Assad Tuesday during a surprise visit to Damascus as the prospect of war between Iran and the United States loomed over the region.

The U.N. on Tuesday urged global powers to renew a system for cross-border aid delivery to Syria that is due to expire this week, saying there was no alternative.

The US has put its ally Saudi Arabia in Iran's crosshairs with the assassination of a top general, leaving it bracing for retaliation just as it was working to ease tensions after a torrid 2019.

Things are moving fast in federal Iraq, as pro-Iran factions flex their muscles and authorities seek to oust foreign troops. Amid the chaos, Iraq's Kurds are watching apprehensively before placing their bets.

Caught between the US and Iran and wary of being accused of seeking independence from Baghdad, the autonomous government of northern Iraq's Kurdish region (KRG) has kept relatively mum on latest developments.

Germany will withdraw some of its troops deployed as part of the anti-IS coalition in Iraq, the defence ministry said Tuesday, in the latest fallout over the US drone strike that killed a top Iranian general.

Eleven Yemeni soldiers were killed and more than 20 wounded on Tuesday in a rebel missile attack on a military camp housing government troops, a military source said.

The U.S. military informed its counterparts in Baghdad on Monday it was preparing for "movement out of Iraq," a day after the Iraqi parliament urged the government oust foreign troops.

The U.S. killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was meant to cripple Tehran's clout in the Middle East, but analysts see the allies of the Islamic Republic closing rank instead.

As the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, Soleimani oversaw Tehran's interventions in regional power struggles from Lebanon and Iraq to Syria and Yemen.

The U.N. Security Council will meet behind closed doors on Monday about the situation in Libya, as Turkish troops begun deploying to the country in a bid to shore up the U.N.-recognized government in Tripoli, diplomats said.